Christianity, the Brand

By Strawberry Saroyan

Published: April 16, 2006

It was around noon on a sunny Tuesday last winter at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., and Larry Ross, arguably the top public relations man for Christian clients in America, was presiding over a media briefing on behalf of the church, its pastor, Rick Warren, and his wife, Kay. The occasion was the Warrens' three-day H.I.V./AIDS conference, ''Disturbing Voices.'' When Jim Towey, the director of the Bush administration's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, walked in, Ross acknowledged him and noted that Towey had been the longtime lawyer for Mother Teresa. Then Ross opened the floor to questions.

''Yeah,'' Warren said into his mike. ''I'd like to know why Mother Teresa needed a lawyer.'' The crowd cracked up. No one answered, but it was the kind of question that might have been asked about Warren himself: Why does Rick Warren need a public relations man?

Of course, in his case, there's an easy explanation. Warren's book ''The Purpose-Driven Life'' has sold more than 25 million copies, making it the best-selling hardcover book of nonfiction ever published in the United States, and some say Saddleback has more in common with Google or Starbucks, at least in scope, than the typical church. Warren has a public and a brand to manage.

But when you speak to Ross for even a short length of time, it becomes clear that he sees himself as serving more than Rick Warren -- or Billy Graham, or the men's ministry Promise Keepers, or films like ''The Passion of the Christ'' (he has represented them all). The Kingdom of God itself is a client of sorts. Publicity, marketing and branding are his ministry. So the real question becomes, Why does God need someone to sell him?

It is a query Ross has spent the last 25 years answering. In 1981, Ross began working with the evangelist Billy Graham and trailblazing the new world of Christian P.R. Ross has counseled Graham through the Nixon-tapes crisis (Graham was heard voicing anti-Semitic sentiments to the president) and helped keep him squeaky clean during the televangelist scandals of the 80's. And earlier this month, when Graham made the New York Times extended best-seller list with his book ''The Journey,'' Ross could be heard pitching him as the oldest author ever on the list. Ross has also represented T. D. Jakes, the African-American pastor whom Ross says he signed when he was ''Bishop Who,'' and films like the prophetic end-times ''Left Behind'' series and ''The Prince of Egypt.'' For the latter, an animated movie that came out in 1998, he helped pioneer some of the contemporary church-marketing techniques that were used later to promote Mel Gibson's ''Passion of the Christ.'' Ross has largely stayed out of politics, but he did sign up Rod Parsley's Center for Moral Clarity in 2004; Parsley, a rising evangelical, is not publicly aligned with a political party, but he worked to mobilize voters in the swing state of Ohio, which went for George Bush in the last election.

Ross is not the sole powerful figure in Christian P.R., but only Mark DeMoss, who worked with Jerry Falwell for eight years before starting the DeMoss Group in Atlanta in 1991, enjoys comparable status. Ross, who is 52, has witnessed -- and most likely contributed to -- the increased attention to Christianity in the wider culture. He notes that some of the biggest national stories since 9/11 have touched on faith, including Gibson's film, the ''values voters'' and even Hurricane Katrina (''We're the good news behind the bad news,'' Ross says, referring to the consolations of faith in the wake of natural disasters, as well as the welcome that religious voices often receive in the press in such situations). And Christian-product markets are expanding rapidly. ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' took in more than $290 million at the box office domestically last winter. (''The Passion'' grossed $370 million.) Christian music now racks up $700 million in sales annually. In 2004, sales of religious books reached $1.9 billion. Packaged Facts, a market-research firm, predicts that Christian products will generate $9.5 billion in sales by 2010. Then there's the Bush factor. ''Any time religion is linked to power, attention to religious news increases,'' says Debra Mason, executive director of the Religion Newswriters Association.

In Hollywood, there is Paul Lauer's Motive Entertainment (Lauer orchestrated the marketing of ''The Passion'' by enlisting 15 firms, including Ross's, to handle different tasks) and Jonathan Bock's Grace Hill Media, whose projects have included ''Narnia.'' Other marketing firms include the Internet-focused BuzzPlant, based in Tennessee, and Renegade Idea Group, out of Texas. Ross claims that in the past decade smaller firms have emerged that handle Christian P.R., which he differentiates from marketing (his firm handles both). Ross works with many of them and acts as a sort of Vernon Jordan of the Bible Belt, making introductions and forging strategic alliances.

Ross opened his company, A. Larry Ross Communications (his first name is Arthur), in 1994, after a 13-year stay at Walter Bennett Communications, where he first began working with Billy Graham. When the agency urged him to focus on expanding a P.R. base that included secular clients because Graham wasn't ''the future,'' Ross and his wife, Autumn, took what was supposed to be a down payment on a house and started a business instead; she calls the step ''a bungee jump for God.'' (Autumn is not involved in the firm's day-to-day business.) Today the Dallas-based firm has 13 staff members and roughly 20 to 30 clients at any given time. Ross says that he rarely chases after a client and is able to operate on the principle of attraction, relying on good word of mouth and referrals to win clients. (DeMoss claims to work this way, too, and the two say they are not competitive with each other, although they have represented half a dozen of the same clients at different times.) Ross, quoting Autumn, characterizes his clients as ''anybody that we will be with in heaven someday.'' While he declines to be specific, he does admit to annual billings ''in the seven figures.'' When asked if a client like Rick Warren helps to underwrite the cost of a client with fewer financial resources, Ross replies, ''That's not the way it works.'' He says the firm bills according to time, with rates varying according to the experience of those assigned to a client.